As he approaches seventy-six, John Cale is a man in a state of evolution. In the past, he tuned his instruments to a refrigerator’s hum in order to resonate on the same frequency as modern life (60 Hz). More recently, in 2014, he sent a “drone orchestra” of speakers flying through London’s Barbican Centre for a collaborative piece with “speculative architect” Liam Young. His autobiography, What’s Welsh for Zen?, includes an anecdote about decapitating a chicken onstage and chucking the parts at the audience, but he now eats mostly vegetables and a little fish. He’s a Welshman who is indelibly tied to New York’s music scene, but he now lives in Los Angeles.

The multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the Velvet Underground is an esteemed avant-garde composer and noted producer for the likes of the Stooges, LCD Soundsystem, Patti Smith, and Modern Lovers. Cale does not typically dwell—or even really think about—the past, but to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Velvet Underground, he did plan a series of shows in Liverpool, Paris, and New York. And yet Cale’s favorite album is always the next one he’s creating. To help himself segue into the future, he has been an avid early adopter and adapter of technology. There’s the Frigidaire and the drones and a revolving array of synthesizers and gadgets that create new and more-interesting sounds.

His decades-long career has been built on mind-expanding work, and he has no interest in resting on his laurels now. In fact, it seems the only time he takes a break is when he is stuck in LA’s notorious traffic. We spoke by phone after he finally made it off the freeway and into his studio, where he was working on his next album. —Melissa Locker

I. A CLOSED EVENT

THE BELIEVER: Do you go to the studio every single day? Do you treat music like a nine-to-five job?

JOHN CALE: Yes. Kinda. Not really. I mean, you go to the gym, go to the studio, go to the gym, go home, go to the gym, go to the studio, stay in the studio awhile, and then go home. It’s a good life, really a good life, yeah.

BLVR: It’s a good life, except for the gym part.

JC: You go to the gym—that’s a lot of fun.

BLVR: What do you do at the gym that’s fun?

JC: Um, punish myself. [Laughs] It’s like, you did fifty reps yesterday, let’s see, you do one hundred today. And then if you’ve done one hundred for about a week, OK, now let’s go and do two hundred. But when you come...